Do you want karate? - Burglar falls to karate expert. MMA Expert?

WEST DEPTFORD TWP. When Rusling P. Cauff eyed a Chevy pickup truck parked outside a Meadow Croft Road home early Friday morning, he didn't know that its owner was a karate instructor with 12 years of experience under his black belt.

Heading outside to investigate the noise, Beasley must have spooked Cauff.

Cauff ran, Melanie Beasley said, and her husband who teaches martial arts at Golden's Karate in Woodbury sprinted after him, grabbing the man and putting him in a chokehold. Melanie Beasley says the man was trying to rip the radio out of the couple's pickup truck.

Police arrived to find Phil Beasley wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants sitting on Cauff's back and twisting his arm, pinning the man to the ground by holding one arm behind his back.

Officers said later that Cauff had apparently broken into three other vehicles in the same neighborhood and may have stolen at least $40, an iPod, an iPod docking station and a radar detector before Phil Beasley grabbed him.
According to Melanie Beasley, who watched the scuffle from the bedroom window, Cauff passed out but regained consciousness less than a minute later only to lose it once again, choked in another of her husband's powerful holds. Awaking a second time, Cauff found himself lying on the front lawn of Beasley's home, trapped by the karate master in what police called a "submission hold."

"It was crazy," she said. "I woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of my husband screaming my name from outside," yelling that he had caught a burglar who was breaking into one of the couple's vehicles, she said.

"This is a very odd story," remarked Chief of Police Craig Mangano. "Usually, when you get calls like this, people hear or see something and they call it in. You don't get a lot of calls where a homeowner subdues the burglar."

Although Mangano in no way suggests that other residents attempt to stop a suspicious person themselves, Beasley's actions did result in the arrest of Cauff and an alleged accomplice, Kennedy K. Blevins, 41, of Camden, who was spotted driving around the neighborhood.

Both were charged and lodged in the Gloucester County Jail.

"We do not recommend (that) someone attempt this," Mangano said, although he did acknowledge "an outcome where no one was seriously hurt."

Melanie Beasley said her husband, a computer programmer, has been practicing karate for the past 12 years but never had an opportunity to use his training until Friday morning.

"It's just a quiet suburban neighborhood," she said. "The fact that our bedroom window faces the driveway and he is a very light sleeper led him to catch the guy."

No doubt he was only using the submission holds that were hidden in his katas by the ancient Okinawan masters who invented them. I just want to know why we only get the abridged version of the story. Since a karate guy can't possibly strike first and retain his honor, they're clearly leaving out Cauff's initial lunge punch when they tell us the story of the fight.